Just a month after fifth-ranked Stenson won his first major title at last month’s British Open in a final-day battle with American Phil Mickelson, he found himself locked in a similar fight with 12th-ranked Rose, the 2013 US Open champion.
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“All the guys that missed out probably made their decisions for good reasons but I think they are going to sit back and realise what a successful event this was”, said Rose.
Britain’s Justin Rose was listening to “God Save The Queen” and watching the Union Jack rise into the sky on Sunday while still trying to fully appreciate the historic Olympic gold medal around his neck.
An epic week fed into an enthralling final day and a gripping last hour when Rose and Henrik Stenson arm wrestled down the stretch. “As I got around the golf course thinking I now have got a real shot at winning a medal there was an overwhelming sense of pride that was just remarkable”. “He’s just beginning to understand what sport is all about”.
Perhaps Leo and Charlotte Rose could one day follow dad and become Olympic medal winners. “I was grinning from ear to ear every time I looked at the leaderboard and saw he was making pars and making birdies, he was going to get a medal”, the two-time Masters victor said. “I pyres it and got a result”. It seems to resonate with a much wider audience. “And that was very, very special”. Rose said. “The crowd was incredibly well supported”.
Ku char, who only got into the U.S. team when Jordan Spieth withdrew before the Open and did not know there was no team competition until recently, said: “It’s the happiest I’ve ever been to finish third”.
But luckiest of all was that the first gold medalist of golf’s Olympic rebirth was Justin Rose, whose elegance as a player and eloquence as a spokesman for the game were both precisely what the doctor ordered when skeptics were lined up to disparage the competition. Many were waving flags and decked out in the country’s colors. “That was a really surreal moment”, Rose said.
“I kept asking my caddy, I wonder what it’s like to stand on that podium and hold a medal in golf”.
Then again, maybe the bar was set too low.
Golf’s return to the Olympics was hampered by difficulty constructing the course and then several stars – including the top four in the world – electing to stay away out of health concerns.
The Rio Games were critical.
International Golf Federation (IGF) officials said before the tournament that the sport’s inclusion had sparked a huge interest in nations that have little tradition or history in the sport.
There is no team component to golf in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, so this week really is no different. Next year, one suggestion was to show highlights from Rio.
“I was just on the outside and barely qualified”, he said after finishing three strokes behind Rose on Sunday.
“It’s an opportunity that comes around so rarely and I think that I’m certainly happy that it’s sort of fallen on my plate, so to speak”.
“I barely qualified”, Kuchar said.
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“It hasn’t been a dream come true because I never dreamed of golf being in the Olympics, but it has been one of the best experiences of my life”.
